2x1the girl in the cave
by dotty dru
Summary: Brennan and Booth work on a new case with an english FBI agent, but is she there to cause trouble. Disclaimer: Trinity and James are mine, not Bones though
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own Bones, but Trinity and James are mine

Bones

Season 2 Episode1

"The Girl in the Cave"

"Temperance, Temperance, Temperance!" Special Agent Seeley Booth ran through the glass laboratory doors, his heels clicking as he went. Two barriers stopped him from going any further until he swiped his pass card and then he could enter the main lab. He skipped towards the woman hovering over the examination table in the centre of the room. Dr. Temperance Brennan was examining a rotted corpse and she didn't even lift her head when her colleague entered. "I told you, Booth," she said to him, "you can't rush science." The remnants of the person on the table were creating a stench which made Booth pull a face as he approached. "I may not be able to rush science," he replied, "but I can rush you. And I'm telling you, Bones, we need those results pronto." Brennan looked up for the first time at the impatient FBI agent. He had ruffled brown hair with deep brown eyes and was wearing a rather expensive looking suit. Apparently he was expecting a victory in court as that was when his best suits came out. "Don't stress me out!" she told him as she returned to the remains. From what Booth could see, she was already stressed out. Her short brown hair was tied back into a scraggly bun and the sleeves of her lab coat were pushed up around her elbows. A young lab assistant came up behind Booth and added, "You really don't want to stress her out. She might explode."

"Zack," Brennan warned her assistant. He was very useful when cleaning bones but when it came to social skills, Zack was some what lacking. "Okay, okay," Booth subsided, "I'll let you do your squint thing. I promise not to interfere."

"Much appreciated," Brennan answered. She knew he meant well and that he was probably being pressured by his bosses but these things took time and even she couldn't change that. "From the shape of the pelvis and the length of the breast bone, I would say that we have a young woman, aged between eighteen and twenty-five," she dictated to Zack as she examined the body. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Booth standing with his arms crossed, repeatedly checking his watch. "It looks like the cause of death was excessive exposure to fire," she continued; opening the mouth she grabbed a mini torch and had a look around. Booth watched intently. Even though he was up against deadlines, he still loved to watch her work. There was no-one like her. At least not for miles anyway. A puzzled look spread across Brennan's face as she examined the corpse's mouth. "Bones?" he asked approaching her, "what is it?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, "it looks like the remnants of something. I'm not sure what." Another member of the lab staff came to the table and said, "Looks like you require my mighty skills."

"Hodgins, can you take a sample of this and see if you can analyse it?" she asked.

"And make it snappy!" Booth added. Hodgins gave him a funny look before trying to remove some of the substance in the girl's mouth. Brennan manoeuvred herself in front of the computer screen that showed a magnified view of a section of bone. "Booth, why exactly are you here?" she asked as he followed her.

"Err Bones, I don't know if you noticed but this is my job. I investigate murders et cetera," he replied with a sarcastic tone.

"I'm the smart one, remember?" she said, "and what I meant was, the FBI was sending over an agent from England to investigate the case." Booth thought that maybe he'd misheard her. How was it, that Bones knew things about the FBI before he did? At his puzzled look, she explained, "We believe that this girl maybe one of the three people who went missing in London a few months ago. I should be able to confirm the date of death soon but the FBI wanted an English agent here to help." Booth looked less than happy. "Why do we need help from the English?" he asked, "I mean we dress better, we have better facilities and we pronounce migraine properly." When his rant had finished, the voice of an English woman came from behind him. "Actually, it's _migraine_ and you're giving me one with all this raving about the English." Booth spun around to see a small woman with dark brown hair standing in front of him. "Surely you should know better, Seeley."

Opening Credits

Emily Deschanel as Dr. Temperance Brennan

David Boreanaz as S.A Seeley Booth

Michaela Conlin as Angela Montenegro

T.J Thyne as Dr. Jack Hodgins

Eric Millegan as Zack Addy

Jonathan Adams as Dr. Daniel Goodman

Rachel Weisz as S.A Trinity Ellis

And

Johnny Depp as James McCormack

Seeley Booth gazed in surprise at the woman who stood before him. "Who's this?" Temperance asked as she stood next to him.

"Special Agent Trinity Ellis," she introduced herself, "I assume you're Dr. Temperance Brennan?" Brennan nodded. Booth was a lot quieter than usual and was playing with the elastic band ball in his hand. "I'm guessing you're the English agent that they're sending over," he said to Trinity. She nodded and smiled. "It's been a while," she replied.

"So you too know each other?" Brennan asked her; still unsure of what was going on. Booth turned to face her. "Me and Elle used to work together before she went back to England. We were partners for years," he explained. This came as a bit of a surprise to Brennan because it had taken him long enough to accept her as his partner and she wasn't involved in every case. The trio stood for a minute in silence before a pretty Asian girl approached them. "So is this game of musical statues a private game or can any one join in?" Brennan was the first to move. "Angela Montenegro, this is Special Agent Trinity Ellis from England," she introduced them. They moved towards the corpse again and Brennan instructed Angela to produce an image of what the woman used to look like. The sooner they worked out what had happened to her, the better. God knows what had gone on between Booth and Ellis but she was determined to find out.

Booth tried to read Brennan's autopsy report while driving down the causeway in downtown DC. No matter what anyone else said, he could multitask as well as any woman. Trinity didn't seem to think so. She grabbed the report of him and received a dirty look. "Come on, Seeley," she said, "I didn't come all this way to get mowed over on the causeway because you weren't watching where you were going." As she looked at him, he seemed so uncomfortable and she could see it would get in the way. "Listen, is there something wrong?" she asked him.

"Like what?"

"Like this weird mood that you're in. You're acting as though I'm someone you hate not someone that you used to work with." Booth looked at her and noticed real concern. But just before he had chance to answer, his cell vibrated furiously in his jacket pocket. It was Brennan. "Hey Bones. What's up?"

"_Hey Booth. It seems that the body we have is one of the missing people."_

"Well at least we've found her now."

"_There's something else. The remnants that we found inside her mouth show that she didn't die in the fire."_

"What do you mean?"

"_I mean that she was gassed to death before she was set on fire." _Booth pulled a face. He could never get used to these strange murders that Bones investigated. "So who is our crispy duck?" he asked.

"_Our victim is twenty year old Melissa Stanford. Her and her friends had gone on a boat trip off the English shores when they just disappeared." _Twenty years old. The number ran round in Booth's head. That was no age at all. When he was a sniper, he'd killed all sorts of people, but no-one that young. When he'd finished the conversation, they'd almost reached FBI HQ and he slammed down the handbrake, spinning the car one hundred and eighty degrees so they were now facing the opposite direction. "Bloody hell, Seeley!" Trinity shouted at him when they'd stopped moving, "Are you determined to kill both of us?" He smiled at her for the first time since she'd arrived. "Come on, Elle. Put a little spice into your life."

Brennan entered the dimly lit room with the only light coming from the Angelator in the centre of the room. It was Angela's own invention that could create 3D images and scenarios of murders by inputting certain statistics. She couldn't understand how the artist could spend so much time in the dark. She needed to be outside which was why she liked to go out with Booth when he went to question suspects. Angela was walking round the large image generator with a small PDA in her hand. As she entered the information, the image of a young girl appeared in lights. She was very pretty, with long blonde hair and blue eyes. "That's her," said Brennan, "that's Melissa." Angela sighed. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"You okay Ange?"

"Yeah, I just can't get used to all these young people being murdered." Angela was so sensitive that it hit her hard. Brennan on the other hand had learnt to keep the identity of the victim out of her mind so that she didn't get emotionally involved. "So anyway. What's with the English chick?" Angela changed the subject. It was Brennan's turn to sigh. "She's just some woman that Booth used to work with." Angela gave her an _I'm not convinced_ look. "Come on, Brennan," she said, "surely you can see something else there." Brennan shrugged. She'd never been very good at analysing social situations. "They've obviously been involved," Angela told her.

"Well I told you. They worked together."

"No Brennan. I mean they were _involved_." It suddenly dawned on her what Angela meant. The thought hadn't actually crossed her mind. Booth didn't seem the type to become _involved_ with a colleague but maybe she didn't know him that well. "Come on Brennan. Surely you noticed," Angela said to her.

"Actually, I hadn't."

"Listen, I'm sure it was a long time ago and that they've both moved on." Brennan nodded her head and turned back to her notes. Angela smiled uneasily. This was going to be an uncomfortable case.

In the main room of the Jeffersonian, Dr. Goodman strolled past the main desk whilst flicking through a pile of papers. He was so busy that he walked straight into the person stood at the desk. "Oh I'm so sorry," Goodman apologised to the man in front of him. He had a head of thick, black hair and wore a strange brown suit with a neck scarf. "Oh that's not a problem," the stranger replied with a broad Scottish accent. Once he'd helped Goodman pick up his papers, he asked, "Excuse me sir, but is this the Jeffersonian?"

"Yes it is. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Err yes actually. I'm looking for Trinity Ellis. She's an FBI agent and she's supposed to be helping here." Goodman smiled and nodded. "Yes of course. Well I'm not sure she's here at the moment but I can take you to where she's working. I'm sorry; I didn't catch your name."

"James McCormack. I'm a …friend of Trinity's." As they entered Brennan's lab, Hodgins ran past before backing up when he noticed the stranger. "Mmm surely not another FBI agent? I tell you what, they don't trust us one bit." Goodman raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Hodgins," he warned him, "have you seen our English friend?" Hodgins laughed as he set up a slide under the microscope. "She's still out with Booth. If you ask me something's definitely going on there." He noticed the perturbed look on the newcomer's face. That was strange. Dr. Goodman left the men stood in the middle of the lab and as Hodgins turned to look through his microscope again he said, "You can stay here and wait for her if you want." James nodded and smiled as he removed a small leather book from his coat pocket.

Brennan had spent the last hour or so with Angela trying to work out how Melissa had been gassed. Even she was feeling nauseous and she couldn't help looking at the picture Angela had created. Melissa had been so young and now her life had been cut tragically short by… Brennan's trail of thought was interrupted as she walked head first into a pair of feet. She pulled a funny face as she stared at the pair of floating brown shoes in front of her. It took her a few seconds to notice the shoes were attached to a pair of legs dangling above her head. As she glanced upwards, she spotted a man sat on the beam running just above the lab. He appeared to be writing something but she just shrugged and walked over to Hodgins and Zack. "So how've you been doing? Any idea what it was that killed our victim?" she asked. Zack replied quickly, "I've cleaned all the bones and I didn't see anything unusual. You can check if you'd like."

"Maybe, but only if we can't find any other leads," she replied, "Hodgins, what about you?" Hodgins gave her a funny look. "Well, I got a bit distracted by Mary Poppins up there." Brennan glanced back up. "I don't know what that means." Zack opened his mouth to explain before Brennan interrupted, "and I don't really need to know either."

"So who's the hunk hanging from the rafters?" Angela approached the group whilst staring at the stranger above them. Brennan shrugged. "Apparently, he's here to see Agent Ellis," Hodgins said in the tone he used when he suspected something was afoot. As the group below him got bigger, James sat out of the way above them, just writing in his book like he always did. Scientists fascinated him; they were so smart and yet didn't seem to understand the outside world. The one who seemed to be the head scientist appeared to be the furthest away from everyone else. _She'd be perfect for a character,_ he thought as he scribbled down some more notes. "I told you not to get the extra onion rings. You never finish the wings." James recognised Trinity's voice immediately and gazed down as she walked in the room, arguing with some guy. Booth had a bucket of Buffalo wings in his hand, which he tried to balance as he searched for his pass card. Trinity grabbed the bucket off him and when he'd swiped the card, they entered the main lab. She held out the wings to give back to Booth when some one dropped down in front of her. As she recognised him, she threw the bucket up in the air. Buffalo wings scattered round the lab, startling the group of scientists. "And they say Buffalos don't have wings," said Booth as a piece landed next to him. "James!" she exclaimed, hugging the man in front of her, "what are you doing here?" James smiled as she hugged him and replied, "Just thought I'd come and see how you're doing."

"You came all the way from Scotland to see how I was doing?" James smiled again and raised an eyebrow. He leant forward and whispered in her ear, "I've got a surprise for you. For later." Trinity suddenly realised that Booth, Brennan and her gang were stood watching. "So are you going to introduce us?" Angela asked, moving closer.

"Err, this is, James. He's a writer." Angela stepped closer. "Does James have a second name?"

"McCormack," he replied with a smile. Brennan appeared next to them. "James McCormack the writer?" she asked.

"Wow Bones your powers of deduction are incredible," said Booth in an off tone. Brennan frowned. "I just meant… I've read some of your books. They're intriguing."

"Dr. Brennan?"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry about the mix up with the series I've written, for some reason I posted the other two when I didn't finish this. But it's still not finished so please review.

In Angela's office, she was sat on her desk while James was sat on the sofa. "So you're a writer? That must be fun," she said to him, "plenty of hanging from ceilings and such."

"I…err… I find it easier to think when I'm out of the way. It seemed like the best place."

"Really?" Angela slid down her desk, "So what's with you and FBI chick?" James suddenly felt rather uncomfortable. "I think that's a conversation for another time, don't you?" he replied, standing up to leave. Angela joined him standing up. "Sorry, you don't have to go do you?" James nodded and quickly walked off.

Brennan adjusted her gas mask that was pulling tight on the back of her head. Carefully, she examined the remnants left by the gas that had killed Melissa Stanford. It was like a yellowish residue that smelt disgusting. Brennan coughed slightly in her mask. _Hydrogen Sulphide._ She wrote on her pad along with the other notes from the case. She left the lab and pulled off her mask. Booth approached her and asked, "So Bones, you find anything?"

"Well, I…" she started, but didn't get to finish because James had just walked past and Booth had started to follow him. "Never mind," she called after him. _FBI are more trouble than they're worth_, she thought, _not like scientists_.

"Hey, you over there." James spun round and spotted the man from earlier. He was tall with dark brown hair and was wearing a suit. As he strolled forward, James spotted a holster and gun, hidden beneath his jacket. He suddenly felt very on edge. "Yes? Can I help you?" Booth sighed and smiled. "What do you want with Elle?" James frowned. "Who?"

"Trinity. What do you want with her?"

"Nothing. Well, nothing that concerns you, whoever you are." Booth stepped closer so he towered slightly over the writer. James ignored the six inches between their heights. He was used to people thinking they could push him around because they were bigger than him. "Special Agent Seeley Booth," he introduced himself. James shrugged. "Elle used to be my partner."

"Oh is that all?" Booth gritted his teeth. James noticed that he was making the FBI agent angry and removed his glasses just in case. The last thing he needed was another pair of broken glasses caused by an FBI agent. "Actually," Booth continued, "it was a little more than that."

"Really. Well that's nice. Now how about you stay the hell away from her." Booth felt the urge to grab his gun but refrained, desperately trying to remember that all murder was illegal, even if he did have a license to kill. "And why should I do that, eh?"

"Because she's moved on." Booth smiled. "So she did mention me then?" It was James' turn to step forward. "And she didn't have a nice word to say about you. I guess you really screwed her over."

Booth smiled again and said, "In a manner of speaking." That was too much for James and before he could stop himself he'd punched Booth in the face. The FBI agent clearly hadn't been paying attention and flew backwards. Sitting up, he could taste blood running from his nose and into his mouth. "Right, that's it!" Booth yelled as he leapt up. James expected him to cuff him for attacking a federal agent but instead Booth swung and hit him right across the face. James stumbled back slightly and touched his lip as it bled.

Trinity was talking on her cell as she looked for Brennan when she heard some bangs and shouts from around the corner. Hanging up the phone, she ran round to see what was happening. She emerged just in time to see Booth knock James clear off his feet. James rubbed his head as he got up and then he cringed when he realised what had happened. He pulled out a broken pair of glasses out of his back pocket. "Bugger."

"James!" he turned around when he heard his name. "What's going on?" Trinity asked as she approached him. He merely held up his glasses and said, "I broke my glasses."

Brennan shuffled into her office with the notes that she'd got from Hodgins about Hydrogen Sulphide. Apparently, it **inhibits the exchange of oxygen on the cellular level and causes asphyxiation. That was obviously what had killed Melissa. It took her a few minutes to notice the group of people sat in her office. Booth was nursing his bleeding nose while James held an ice pack to his bruised head. Trinity was sat behind Brennan's desk looking furious while Hodgins couldn't stop laughing. Just as Brennan was about to ask what was going on, Hodgins stepped in and said, "Just in case you were wondering, Popeye and Pluto here were just having a little fight over Olive Oil again." **

**Brennan pulled a face at the pop culture reference and replied with her usual phrase, "I don't know what that means." **

**"It just means that those two over there decided to knock a few pieces out of each other," said Trinity with anger in her voice. **

**"He started it," Booth mumbled under his breath. Brennan smiled and shook her head. "Anyway, our victim was killed by Hydrogen Sulphide for those of you who have been busy doing other things," she continued, "It was asphyxiation that killed her."**

**"Come again, Bones?" Booth said to her whilst rubbing his injured nose. **

**"**Asphyxiation is a loss of consciousness due to the presence of too little oxygen or too much carbon dioxide in the blood. The victim may stop breathing for a number of reasons; in this case it was suffocation by use of gas." Booth nodded, still not a clue what was going on. James pulled out another pair of glasses from his coat pocket and placed them on his nose. "I think it's time I went," he said, standing. Before he had chance to move, Booth had leapt up in the air and grabbed his arm. "Excuse me, but I feel there's something I need to say before you go." Trinity smiled. That was the Booth that she was used to. Grinning, Booth pulled out a pair of handcuffs and spun James around, reciting his well-practised speech of: "I am arresting you for the assault of a federal agent. You do not have to say anything." The FBI agent pushed his captive out of the door before anyone had chance to say anything. Brennan glanced at Trinity. "Not what you were expecting?" Trinity just stormed out of the door. "I guess not."


	3. Chapter 3

An incessant thumping could be heard from the office of Special Agent Seeley Booth and anyone who walked in would have had an elastic band ball in the head. Unfortunately for Booth, it was his boss who entered his office first ergo his boss who had an attack from a flying elastic band ball. "Agent Booth," he said sharply, "I do not appreciate this nonsense. Nor do I appreciate you having fights in the middle of the Jeffersonian. Am I to believe that Agent Ellis is the cause of all of this?" Booth looked downwards. "Technically, it was her idiot boyfriend who started it."

"I don't care who started it," his boss yelled back at him, "The point is, you fought back and provoked or not, you should have left him alone or arrested him immediately." Booth was quiet. As his boss was leaving, he gave one last order, "Let him go." Normally Booth would have protested but he was in enough trouble already. And so he slowly approached the cells where James sat waiting. He had a split lip and a large bruise on the side of his head. But he didn't seem at all bothered. He was just sat there, writing. _Weirdo_ thought Booth. He opened the door and advanced towards the writer. But he didn't even lift his head. By this point, Booth was getting angry. He grabbed the book that James had been writing in. James merely stared at him. Scanning the page, Booth read, _by this point, Jack had figured out what kind of a man Sergeant Crane was. He was short-tempered, irrational and his hair stuck up too much… _James grabbed his book back of Booth. "It's not quite finished, thank you very much," he told the agent.

"I hope that book of yours is entirely fiction," Booth replied, "for your sake." James smiled and walked past him. The only thought that formed in Booth's head was, _I've always hated the Scottish._

Sirens whirled loudly as the cars of the FBI arrived at the cave side. Boats swarmed round in the water and as Brennan approached, she could see Trinity stood at the waters edge. "Trinity!" she shouted down to her. The agent spun round and removed her sunglasses as Brennan approached. "What have we got here?" Trinity sighed. "It looks like we've found the boat that Melissa was on," she replied, indicating the wreckage behind her. The boat had once been quite large but it had been mostly destroyed by the sea.


	4. Chapter 4

"Look who it is" Trinity grumbled, as she watched Booth and James approach. They were stood as far away from each other as possible and Booth appeared to be sulking. When they had reached the boat, the agent received a hard slap from Trinity, as she walked towards James. "What the hell was that for?" Booth asked, ignoring James' laughter. "That was for arresting James" she slapped him again, this time harder. "And that?"

"That was for getting into a fight with him in the first place. Come on James" she said, pulling her boyfriend away. "If it makes you feel any better, I think you only deserved one slap" Brennan said, inspecting his cheek. "Yeah, that makes me feel loads better" he replied, dryly. "Hey love birds! We got two more bodies over here!" Trinity yelled from the other end of the cave. Brennan and Booth automatically moved away from each other and headed over to the boat. "Where'd James go?" Booth asked his fellow agent, with a smirk. "Back at the lab. He didn't want to get in the way" she replied, passing Brennan some gloves. "Why'd he come in the first place then?"

"You are unbelievable!" she shouted. Booth didn't seem to be paying attention, because he was crouched next to Brennan, by the side of a corpse, holding a flashlight. "Female, early twenties. Dancer" the scientist broke the silence. "How'd you know she was a dancer?"

"Extensive wearing on the phalanges"

"Translate" Trinity requested, sharply. "Her toes are worn, which is usually the result of many years of dancing, probably ballet." Trinity looked amazed. "The facial bone structure is beautiful. I'm not sure it's the same cause of death" Brennan continued. "Whoa, why not?"

"I can't be certain until I've got these back to the lab, but I'm pretty sure her neck was snapped"

"Show me" Booth asked, shuffling closer so he had a clearer view of the remains. Trinity rolled her eyes. "See here" she pointed "two of the cervical vertebrae are detached. Looks like there are stab wounds to the legs" The female agent pulled a face "I don't see it" she said crouching on the other side of Brennan. "You can see the marks between the tibia and the fibula"

"That's got to hurt"

"The murderer would have to be strong, too. If she'd been dancing for long enough to damage her toes so badly, then her calves would be very well toned and therefore making it harder to stab her"

"There goes any plans I had of having lunch" Trinity said. She looked remarkably paler, which Booth didn't think was even possible, but Brennan had a knack of making people feel sick, when describing human remains. "So, what've we got next?" he asked, climbing through a small hole in the side of the boat. It stank of rotten wood and was flooded at one end, but there was no sign of a corpse. Trinity moved past him and pointed to the flooded part. "Somewhere in there" she directed them. "Anyone up for pond-dipping?" Booth said, clapping his hands and turning to the women, who both had their eyebrows raised and were staring at the muddy puddle in horror.

"Hey, need any help?" Angela asked James, who was sat up on the beam again, writing. "Last time I checked, it didn't take two people to write, but…"

"But…?"

"There is something I was wondering, though" he closed his book "How long have they been together?" Angela gave him her sweetest, confused look "Who?"

"Agent Booth and the Doc" he replied, as if he was stating the obvious. The artist could barely hold back her laughter, _I'm going have some fun here _she thought. "Oh we're not supposed to talk about that"

"Why not?"

"Do have any idea how much trouble they'd get in if anyone found out?" she said. Even she was amazed how good an actress she was and everything just seemed to come out. James nodded, _in trouble? I couldn't tell anyone, it's not fair on the doctor _he thought. His thoughts were interrupted, when the door of Angela's office opened. "Angela" Zack said, entering the room "Dr. Brennan told me to tell you, that her and Agent Booth are back with the bones"

"Isn't Trinity there?"

"Uh, I think so, but I was just passing on the message from Dr. Brennan" he replied. Angela stood and gave James an '_I told you so'_ smile.

"Hodgins can you get some samples of the particulates on our second victim?" Brennan asked, rushing round the main lab. "Sweetie? You called?" Angela said. "No actually I got Zack to give you a message, but do you could do a scenario for me? The body is over there, thanks" the scientist called, running to her office without waiting for an answer. She slipped off her lab coat and hung it up, before she sat down at her desk. _Two minutes of peace and quiet _she thought, lying her head down. She closed her eyes. "Bones!" Booth's voice rang in the silence of the Jeffersonian. _So far for that idea. _She lifted her head and opened her eyes. "Wake up sleepy head" he told her, as he knelt next to her. "What do you mean wake up? I wasn't asleep"

"You're a bad liar, you know that Bones?"

"What time is it?"

"5:30pm"

"But I only just sat down two minutes ago"

"Bones, you came in here three hours ago"

"Don't call me Bones" she yawned, leaning her head on the desk. "We identified one of the bodies" he said, standing up. "I'm awake" she groaned, her head shooting up at the news "Who was it?" He tossed her a file "Sophia Lawrence, 21. Student at the Wirral academy of Performing Arts" She moved over to grab her lab coat, but Booth blocked her path. "You're not working"

"Did you find out what happened to her?"

"Not yet"

"Then I am working" she informed him, reaching past him for her lab coat. She stepped towards the door, but Booth beat her to it. "Booth, I'm being serious. Move!"

"What would you do if I said no"

"I'd move you" she answered, pushing her arm gently into his chest so he stumbled back.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning Brennan walked up to Booth at their crime scene, trying to think how to best approach the subject. Without even looking at her, he said "What's up Bones?"

"Booth," she paused "you know you and Agent Ellis did you two ever…?"

"Yes, we did." he interrupted. "But you don't know what I was going to say," she protested. "I think it was pretty obvious."

"I might've been saying did you two ever…go line dancing," she struggled. Booth raised an eyebrow. "I don't know about line dancing," he replied "but we did date."

"That's not like you." she said. "I know, but something about Elle gets to me."

"Got."

"What?"

"Something about her got to you. Past tense." she corrected him. "Yeah, yeah, that's what I said." he told her casually. Brennan was not convinced. Booth walked over to a young man, who was up to his waist in water. "What are you doing?" he asked. "My job."

"We've got our own entomologist. So, bon voyage." he said, waving his arms while trying not to fall forwards. "Don't be so harsh Seeley." Trinity's voice crept up behind him. He sulked and turned to face her. A few metres away Brennan was bossing someone around. "You're calling me harsh!" he exclaimed, pointing towards his partner. "I was joking Seeley," she giggled "there's something about you that seems different." He shuffled past her, carefully avoiding looking at her. "Same old me"

"No. I think she's changed you."

"Who?" he laughed, but Trinity's response was interrupted by Brennan, as she tried to tug Booth away. Trinity raised her eyebrows and smiled. "I'll leave you two alone." Booth was about to protest, but the scientist was too busy spouting out facts about the crime scene. "You're not listening are you?"

"What?"

"I said it appears that our second victim was here a few months previous to the other victims' dates of death," she explained. "Right," he said, slightly confused. "Are you okay?"

"Course I am, Bones."

"But you didn't notice anything strange about what I just said?"

"Not really," he replied. She frowned at his absent-mindedness. "If this is a serial killer, then it is highly likely that they would all have the same cause of death and a pattern in the dates of death."

"You're getting good at this," he smiled, crouching beside her. "Booth, I can't believe you've only just realised I'm good at my job!"

"Not your job, mine."

"But, I don't do your job, you do."

"Not what I meant, Bones," he laughed. "So I'm going to check out the boat to see if there's any clue to where our victims were killed and you can go do your FBI thing," she instructed, stepping through the hole in the side of the wreck. "My FBI thing?" he whispered to himself.

Brennan pulled on a pair of gloves as she approached the area where the last few bodies had been found. She jumped across a large puddle and over to a wall filled completely with paintings. One by one she bagged the paintings, to reveal a plain white wall. She traced some marks with her fingers and concluded that the patterns were from finger nails scraping the wall. "How could somebody do that?" she asked herself. "Do what?" a voice interrupted her thoughts. Brennan spun round on her heels to face Trinity and suddenly she felt embarrassed for talking to herself. "Uh, I removed the pictures of the wall and there are scratches. I'm not sure, but to me it looks like they were made by finger nails."

"Ouch," the agent cringed, looking down at her own nails. Brennan smiled and reached her hand out to help Trinity across the water. "If the marks were made by finger nails, I'm presuming that the victim was dragged back by her attacker."

"Or that she was a cat."

"Cats have claws; therefore the marks would be thinner and deeper."

"Please tell me you're joking?" Trinity laughed, but the scientist felt like she had missed something. "I'll take these paintings back to the lab and see what Ange thinks," Brennan sighed, returning outside with her arms full of artwork.

"So what do you think?" Brennan asked peering over her best friend's shoulder as she inspected the paintings. "I think we've got enough bad art here to last us a lifetime as toilet paper."

"The whole wall was covered; this is only half of it."

"Why if you could afford a boat like that would you fill it with this junk?"

"Maybe they wanted to cover up the scratches," Brennan suggested. Angela slowly turned and gave her an annoyed look. "And you never thought to mention that?"

"Well, I just did, didn't I?" she protested


End file.
